Warren Buffett bashes Bitcoin; calls it a ‘gambling device’ with ‘a of frauds’

2019-05-06

Warren Buffett aka the Oracle of Omaha spoke with CNBC and updated his views on Bitcoin. Buffett had previously called Bitcoin “rat poison squared” and in a successive interview with CNBC appreciated the technology behind it, blockchain.

On May 4, Buffett told a group of Berkshire Hathaway reporters:

“It’s a gambling device… there’s been a lot of frauds connected with it. There’s been disappearances, so there’s a lot lost on it. Bitcoin hasn’t produced anything.”

He added:

It doesn’t do anything. It just sits there. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me.”

Furthermore, Buffett used an analogy to make his point. He equated Bitcoin to a button that had a “very limited use”. Specifically, he stated:

“I’ll tear off a button here. What I’ll have here is a little token…I’ll offer it to you for $1000, and I’ll see if I can get the price up to $2000 by the end of the day… But the button has one use and it’s a very limited use.”

Buffett has been known around the world for his amazing investing strategies; however, Buffett isn’t quite a fan of Bitcoin as he had called it “rat poison squared”. Interestingly enough he appreciated the technology behind it and said that “Blockchain…is very big, but it didn’t need bitcoin”.

The statements by Buffett caught the attention of people in the crypto space as they reacted to it. Monero’s Fluffy Pony tweeted:

“Even Warren Buffett knows Craig Wright is a fraud.”

A Twitter user Vijay Bopati commented:

30Million people in the US have diabetes, many of whom contracted it by consuming addictive foods laced with high fructose corn syrup, like Coca Cola or See’s candies (Berkshire Hathaway companies). So @WarrenBuffett… Let’s talk about rat poison.

Anthony Pompliano commented:

Warren Buffett fears Bitcoin.

It stands to disrupt the entire system that allowed him to build one of the greatest fortunes the world has ever seen.

Every great empire falls though and Bitcoin will give a number of people a level of wealth that Buffett will envy.